Northstar Tutoring
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 821656738
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2026952982
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $251,101
- Expenses
- $282,504
- Assets
- $49,798
- Liabilities
- $650
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jennifer Townsend (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Jennifer Townsend (Executive Director): $119,167 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Northstar Tutoring's mission is to provide free, one-on-one tutoring and mentoring to Washington, D.C. area students from families with low incomes to help them succeed in both their academic and personal lives.
What it reported doing in 2024
Mt. Pleasant Library: In 2024, Northstar provided free one-on-one tutoring for K-12 students at the Mt. Pleasant Library, with a focus on supporting students from low-income families in Washington, D.C., particularly in the Columbia Heights area. We held two tutoring sessions per week throughout the academic year and served approximately 50 students. A team of 110 volunteer tutors participated in this program, each paired with a student to provide weekly academic and mentoring support. Sessions focused on completing homework, preparing for tests and quizzes, and working through supplemental educational materials created by Northstar. Each volunteer contributed an estimated 40 hours over the course of the year.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 68% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 18
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.2%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 81.9%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.92 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -12.5%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 42.2%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 25.5% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 92.2% of revenue deployed · 81.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $231K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $119K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.